On the twenty-first day of Christmas, Black Library gave to us…a Raven Guard audio drama by Joe Parrino. Loss, a fifteen-minute audio, sees a squad of young Raven Guard scouts battling against dark eldar, ambushed from out of the shadows in a reversal to the usual order of things. As the inexperienced scouts pit their strength against the xenos they find their preconceptions of superiority and invincibility sorely tested.
Light in dialogue and heavy in narration, Loss takes a slightly different approach to the audio format than most in the advent series, heavily utilising sound effects to provide colour and texture to the narrator’s descriptions of the frantic, fierce combat taking place. While it probably wouldn’t work in a longer piece, in this short audio it works well, helping to build up a vivid picture of the action while the listener absorbs what’s happening to the narrator. As it involves brand new characters this definitely benefits from multiple listens, the detail becoming clearer the second time round, but overall it’s a solid, action-filled piece that nicely portrays an interesting situation and neatly starts these characters’ story, presumably to be continued in Alone, Parrino’s longer audio drama.
Click here to go to the main Black Library Advent Calendar post and see the other reviews.
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